View Committee on the Status of Women 2014 Tenure and Promotion Workshops

Promotion to Associate Professor and Tenure (This video may be slow to buffer, so be patient.)Promotion to Full Professor (This video may be slow to buffer, so be patient.)PLEASE NOTE: The Faculty Request to the Committee for promotion or early conferral of permanent tenure must be submitted by the 1st Friday in February, not March as stated in this video.

Office for Faculty Excellence's Role

Consult your chair or unit head and your personnel committee for information on requirements and procedures for tenure and promotion and read carefully the appropriate sections of the East Carolina University Faculty Manual. The East Carolina University Faculty Manual contains the procedure to be followed. The Faculty Manual includes The Code of The Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina (Part III of the Faculty Manual). In addition, there may be unit procedures and guidelines that have been created as part of the process. If these are not given to you automatically, please ask whether such documents exist for your unit.

The role of the Office for Faculty Excellence in this process is to offer some resources and materials appropriate for several of the common components of the tenure and promotion process. to provide training sessions about their use, and to partner with groups, such as the Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Women, to provide tenure and promotion workshops. (The Spring 2014 workshops for Tenure and Promotion and Promotion Only are online for viewing.) OFE activities supporting reappointment, tenure, and promotion include the following:

SPOTS (Student Perception of Teaching Survey) - The SPOTS has replaced the SOIS (Student Opinion of Instruction Survey) as the university instrument used each term to seek input from students about their instruction. OFE personnel consult with faculty about their SPOTS data and ways to address areas for development.

Peer Classroom Observation - Peer classroom observations are mandated in the UNC system for all tenure-track faculty and by ECU for faculty teaching in distance education. Many units require peer classroom observation for fixed term and tenured faculty as well. The University has designated the responsibility for peer classroom observer training to the Office for Faculty Excellence.

The Personnel Action Dossier (Personnel Action Dossier) (PAD) is required for reappointment, tenure, and promotion decisions for tenured and tenure-track faculty. Many units require either an abbreviated PAD or some other evaluation document for reappoint and promotion decisions. The OFE provides workshops and individual consultations about the construction of the PAD (according to the appropriate sections of the Faculty Manual), resources available to faculty, and other matters.

Sedona - Sedona is the University Faculty Database. Faculty enter teaching, research, faculty development, and other information into the database. The faculty annual report is a Sedona-assisted report. The OFE provides training sessions and individual consultations for faculty and support staff about the use of Sedona (ITCS provides technical and access information). The OFE coordinates a minimum of twice yearly meetings of the College Sedona Coordinators Group and beginning Summer 2014 houses the ECU Sedona Directory.

The Faculty Senate has approved for use in personnel decisions via the annual evaluation a survey: the SPOTS (Student Perception of Teaching Survey) in versions for face-to-face, lab, and field-based, and distance education courses. The Distance Education version is administered to all students in courses with a distance-learning component that comprises 25 percent or more of the total contact hours. Data from SPOTS are qualitative data and are not designed to serve the purpose of a measurement instrument; therefore, SPOTS data may not be converted into a numerical sore to be used in faculty evaluation. The Office of Institutional Planning, Research, and Effectiveness generates these surveys, administers them, and summarizes the information, which is distributed to the appropriate faculty members and units

For questions concerning surveys, including the SPOTS, please contact:

Peer Classroom Observation - see the Peer Classroom observation section on this site

Direct, peer classroom observation of teaching for non-tenured, probationary term faculty members is required at East Carolina University. This requirement results from UNC General Administrative Memorandum #338 ("Tenure and Teaching in the University of North Carolina"), issued September 28, 1992, and from East Carolina University Faculty Senate Resolution #93-44, which was approved by the Chancellor on February 8, 1994. The Faculty Senate Resolution establishes procedures and an instrument for direct, peer classroom observation. It also states that units can modify the Faculty Senate procedures or instrument, or select their own, provided these are approved by the appropriate vice chancellor.

Personnel Action Dossier (PAD) - See the Faculty Manual

The Personnel Action Dossier (PAD) is required for personnel action for reappointment, promotion and permanent tenure. It is defined in the East Carolina University Faculty Manual (IV.F.2) as: The Personnel Action Dossier is a file containing materials for evaluating a faculty member's professional activity. The dossier is compiled by candidates for reappointment, promotion, and/or permanent tenure in consultation with the unit administrator and the chair of the Unit Personnel Committee. The dossier will be use by the appropriate committee in making personnel recommendations. A fixed term faculty member seeking to be recommended for a second or subsequent fixed-term appointment need not compile the dossier.

The Faculty Manual specifies the organization, content and limitations of the dossier in Section X. Additional information on tenure and promotion is in Section IX.

Other Resources

School- and College-level Meetings. A number of the colleges and schools hold meetings to discuss the expectations and procedures for acquiring tenure and promotion in that unit. The timing for these meetings varies from one year to the next. Ask in your school or college if there are plans to hold such a meeting and when it will occur. It is important that you attend this meeting.

Unit Chair and Personnel Committee Discussions. You need to inquire if your unit has unit-level procedures and guidelines that apply to the tenure and promotion process. Often units will have in their codes how the personnel committee(s) concerned with tenure and promotion will operate. It is wise to talk to your unit chair as well as the chair and members of the unit personnel committee(s) that handles tenure and promotion decisions.

East Carolina University Committee on the Status of Women. This committee holds fall and spring workshops for reappoint, tenure, and promotion and for promotion only. In recent years the Chair of the Faculty and the Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and the Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences have held college/school meetings annually to discuss policies and procedures. The Spring 2014 workshops are online: